How much should courts consider Aboriginal heritage?

The court has a duty to fully consider an accused’s aboriginal heritage before sentencing him on Internet luring and child pornography, a defence lawyer said Friday.

Rae-Anne Copat argued that a four-page pre-sentence report previously submitted to the court does not sufficiently explore her client Andrew Doxtator’s Native heritage.

“It does seem limited,” Copat said about the document.

She said a full report should run to 30 or 40 pages, if not more, to properly analyse the complex issues regarding the Aboriginal experience. Copat also suggested a Native author would be best to write such a report.

She noted that the Supreme Court, concerned with the over-representation of First Nations people in the judicial system, has directed lower courts to consider Aboriginal heritage in sentencing.

But assistant Crown attorney Gary Nikota said the four-page pre-sentence report touches on First Nation’s issues and is sufficient in this case, especially since there were no indications that suggest the accused’s heritage had anything to do with the offence.

“There are genuine attempts made to deal with his First Nations issues,” assistant Crown attorney Gary Nikota said of the report.

Nikota said he would have asked the court to sentence Doxtator to 18 to 24 months in prison, but because of his Native heritage is only asking for 12 to 15 months. One year is the mandatory minimum for child luring.

Doxtator was arrested in February as part of a province-wide child-pornography sting. Doxtator pleaded guilty in July to Internet luring and distributing child pornography.

He communicated online with someone he thought was a troubled 15-year-old girl from a single-parent home, but which was actually a Kentucky police officer posing as a minor. He coaxed his online chat partner to commit a sex act, bragged about having sex with an underage family member, and shared a video that appears to show a 10-year-old girl being sexually assaulted by an adult male.

Police found no evidence that an underage family member was abused. Windsor police subsequently raided Doxtator’s home and found pornographic images and videos of girls as young as three on his computers.

Though Doxtator was to be sentenced Jan. 11, Ontario Court Justice Lloyd Dean set Feb. 11 as the date he will deliver his ruling on whether the accused’s heritage has been sufficiently considered.

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